I missed it Marshall, sorry. He does seem to have a sounder NHL game than Tedenby and others. He may have to play on the wing. This is what young players have to do sometimes.

Lemaire tried him there and said that he shouldn't play wing. He does a way better job at center. Lemaire was raving about him last year:

"Personally, I think it's Jo," Lemaire said. "Jo has great hockey sense. I will agree that Kovy can come in late. When Jo has the puck, (Kovalchuk) can because Jo can find him. They didn't play together a lot but I know that this would be a good line."

"This kid has it. There's no doubt," Lemaire said. "He just turned 20 a couple days ago and he's a good player right now. If you look at his stats, his stats are not that great. But as a hockey player you want him on your team."

"I think it's how he understands the game, where he goes on the ice," Lemaire said. "When he doesn't have the puck, what is he going to do? When he has the puck, what he's doing with the puck. He's quick, strong, he's got good hands. He sees the ice well. So he has a lot of qualities."As soon as he gets that scoring quality, he'll be a player."

"This kid played really well, really well," Lemaire said. "He's young, he's learning. He played much better than at wing. He's a centerman, he's not a winger. They were telling me this, but because Arnott's gone, now I have the chance to put him at center.

Edited by Marshall, 28 December 2011 - 06:26 PM.

0

Winner of the 2009-10 Slava Fetisov Award For Best International Poster
Winner of the 2011-2012 RD Avatar Award

I have to imagine with the 2nd line still playing as well as it has that you will see him either moved to winger or play some 4rth duty. No big deal either way as it's a long season and Im sure we will have injuries and this just adds to our depth.

He'll have to earn a spot, like everybody else. He's not at the point in his career where it's an absolute given, like Zajac. Granted, of course he should be ahead of a guy like Carter, but at the same time, if they keep Henrique/Elias/Zajac as centers, does it really help JJ to play a limited role on the 4th line? Anyway, depth is a good problem, but I think he'll need to work his way back in to rotation first, and then we'll see what happens.